Tools and knowledge

Last week we tore down our old ghastly kitchen FTX unit, which left a gaping hole in our kitchen above the stove. And today I had the pleasure of observing a kitchen carpenter working his magic. I had sent him a couple of phone pics and an outline of the idea a couple of days in advance. This morning he turned up with his van and portable workshop and before long we had a brand-new kitchen cabinet instead. The thing that impressed me the most was the speed of his progress. It is a beautiful thing to observe a professional doing what they do best, when knowledge and tools harmonize perfectly.

I know that one of my personal weaknesses is my attention to detail, which often can go beyond the point of diminishing returns. Considering the carpenter who just eye-balled his actions with the drill and saw, the contrast to myself is huge. I would probably have measured and aligned some of those holes and cuts to an absurd degree. I can’t help it, it’s in my DNA. However, as I grew older, I have learned to simply ignore my desire to make things perfect. It is often just as silly as presenting acoustic measurements with 0,1 dB accuracy. Or perhaps measuring the distance between cities in millimeters. No-one will ever care if some of those holes are a bit off-center and if cuts for the ventilation channel is a little too large. I am grateful that I don’t get stuck with that obsession to perfectionism nowadays like I used to when I was younger. Instead, I can choose my battles and pick some topic where that perfectionism and time/energy can be put to good use.

One thing that perhaps correlates to a certain degree with my obsession to detail, is the immense pleasure I find in using appropriate tools for the job. And consequently, the sheer frustration of solving a task with an improper tool. That’s another thing I truly enjoyed with the kitchen carpenter today. He had all the tools he needed to do what was necessary and that is also an explanation why he could work so fast. He was flying while mounting that new cabinet from scratch. It’s kind of like playing music when it all comes together.

I truly enjoy figuring out smarter and more effective ways of working, preferably using new tools and methods, be it hardware or software. But I focus most of that energy on acoustics, which is a trade where I am above average skill level. One thing that has annoyed me a lot when doing field measurements is the fact that we often tape our microphones to window glass when doing façade sound insulation measurements. We wish to measure the sound pressure level both indoors and outdoors. But you need to measure several microphone positions, and obviously, tape is very cumbersome for that purpose. So why not use a suction cup for the glass? I got an impulse today and started to dig in my drawers and found my old suction cup mount for my GoPro action camera and a bag with various GoPro camera adapters. A couple of minutes later I had put together a contraption with a microphone clamp and windscreen that can be attached to a window glass in seconds instead of minutes. Always aim to shave off a couple of seconds here, a couple of minutes there and keep improving. That’s how you get to the level of professionalism that my kitchen carpenter displayed today.

I hope that someone will observe me when I do my field measurements and think the same thing of me one day: “Damn, that guy is FAST!”. Tools and Knowledge in perfect harmony.